Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jan 2001
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2001 Cox Interactive Media.
Contact:  72 Marietta Street, NW, Atlanta, Ga. 30303
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Section: Obituaries

STANLEY F. YOLLES, 81, U.S. MENTAL HEALTH CHIEF, NIXON FOE

New York -- Dr. Stanley F. Yolles, who as the nation's top official on 
mental health in the 1960s denounced what he saw as ''stupid, punitive 
laws'' on drug use and was eventually forced out by the Nixon 
administration, died on Jan. 12 at University Hospital in Stony Brook, N.Y. 
He was 81 and lived in Stony Brook.

The cause was emphysema, his family said.

Dr. Yolles was director of the National Institute of Mental Health from 
1964 to 1970 and as such oversaw, among other things, research on illicit 
drugs and efforts to treat addicts. He was a prominent voice in the 
national debate over how to deal with the soaring use of marijuana and 
other drugs by young people.

In testimony before House and Senate committees, Dr. Yolles argued that 
strict laws failed as deterrents, and advocated abolishing mandatory 
sentences and giving judges greater leeway in dealing with drug users, 
especially first-time offenders. Of penalties for marijuana possession, he 
said, ''I know of no clearer instance in which the punishment for an 
infraction of the law is more harmful than the crime.''

His testimony was said to have helped persuade the Justice Department to 
reduce penalties for marijuana, and it also angered the Nixon 
administration, with which he had also battled over spending and the 
direction of the institute. On June 2, 1970, the administration announced 
that Dr. Yolles had been dismissed, the same day that he issued a letter of 
resignation accusing the White House of ''abandonment of the mentally ill.''

Dr. Yolles' daughter Melanie said her father ''tried to work with the 
administration, but it got to a point where they were totally opposed in 
their ideologies.'' Hearing that he was about to be fired, she said, ''he 
decided to issue his own pre-emptive strike."
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